We are divided as a Country and as Christians.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Abraham Lincoln is most known for that quote, but actually Jesus Christ said if before Abraham Lincoln even thought of it.  

Our Nation is more divided today than I have ever seen it in my lifetime. It is worse than during the turmoil of the 60’s when Vietnam and Love-Ins were festering topics.

How are we divided well let us count the ways: 

We do not listen to one another any longer. If someone does not agree with us we question their motivation. Immediately anyone who does not agree with our religion or our politics or our views in general are judged stupid and evil. We are no longer willing to have reasonable discussions and reach a consensus on what we have in common and work from there.

There was a time when Republicans and Democrats had difference in opinions on how the country should be run. But, we did not hate one another and try to destroy one another. We had political differences and that was it – simple.  The elections came and went and the losers accepted their loss and we moved on as one supporting the elected candidates. What is ironic is there are far fewer differences in the two parties than ever before and we do our best to destroy each other before and after the election and nothing productive is ever accomplished.

One only has to follow social media to see that we no longer have thoughtful, and respectful discussions. We no longer are interested in trying to win anyone over to our way of thinking, instead with our words we do all we can to turn them away by attacking their sincerity, intelligence and faith.

What happen to LOVE!  Mention homosexuality to some Christians and you will see the most vicious, vile rhetoric come from their heart and their mouths. The Orlando massacre shined a light on the bigotry of some lay and some ministers within the church. For example, “I wish one Saturday night a group of people would organize all around the country and go to every gay bar in America and kill ever single queer in there and that would stop them from leading our children and grandchildren astray”, “They were not afraid in that restroom in that queer bar in Orlando. They were too busy having sex to be afraid”, “My only problem with the dumb terrorist in Orlando was he did not kill them all.”  The list goes on and on and on and the people vow up and down they are CHRISTIANS.

I think some Christians are going to be shocked when they reach the Pearly Gates and find them padlocked. I do not think the words some Christians are using in speaking of homosexuals are the words God wants them to use.  

I realize some Christians say they are  tired of being made into the bad guys. They’re tired of being called the bigots, the haters, etc. I was told by one Christian,  “If I do not speak out loud and clear now to stop the homosexuals one day I may lose my right to do so.” I do not think it is the agenda of homosexuals to prevent Christians from believing as they wish or to take away their right to free speech, but it is their agenda to be able to speak and live as they believe. There are bigots on both sides of the issue and if you do not want to be called a bigot then do not act like one.

At the Indiana Statehouse, Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. of the Indiana Pastors Alliance addressed a roaring crowd: “We’re not here today because we’re angry. We’re not here because we hate people. “We’re actually here,” he said, “because we love Jesus.” He went on to say, “How can government force people to act against their religious consciences — against an unshakable belief that marriage is between a man and a woman?” Has the government ask any Christian to do that?  There are laws about discriminating in a PUBLIC business. The government has only ask that we respect the rights of others to believe as they want, just as the Christians opposed to homosexuality do. 

I heard similar arguments at my Grandmothers church, First Baptist Church of Pratt City, Alabama against integration and interracial marriages. The only words coming from his mouth that I agreed with was, “I’m not asking for special protected class status. I’m asking to be left alone, for crying out loud.” Rev. Ron Johnson that is all the gay community really wants.

For some evangelical Christians, who are led by ministers like the Indiana Pastors Alliance there is no compromise. Expanding the state civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes would effectively feel like a betrayal of their constitutional rights.

Not all Christians share their views. Some Christians agree with enacting nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people, including a coalition of mainline Christian denominations and a group of 141 faith leaders who signed onto a letter of support. Bishop William Gafkjen, who oversees Indiana and Kentucky congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said he doesn’t feel that adding to the civil rights law threatens his religious freedom.

Christian’s are more divided today than ever before in my lifetime. There has always been some that thought if you did not belong to their church or denomination you could not go to heaven. There has always been some that thought they were the only ones that knew how to interpret scripture. But, there are some Christians today that are nearly or they are militant about their opinions.

If you believe me to be wrong then next Sunday after church start a conversation with those you just worshiped God with about immigration.  If one person does not explode like a stick of dynamite has been ignited in them - I would be shocked.  A recent National Public Radio report noted, “Immigration is shaping up to be one of the most contentious and emotional topics in the 2016 presidential race.”  Even among us Christians.

We seem to forget that all Americans have immigrants in their genealogy if they take time to go back far enough.  The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 banned racial criteria for immigration. From that time on, people would be admitted “on the basis of their skills and their relationship to those already here” and to find refuge from oppression. The problem is not immigration the problem is that our immigration laws are not being following by our politicians. The law never intended to allow illegal immigration into our country.

 There are approximately 11.3 million persons in the U.S. today without authorization—without some kind of Visa or Green Card. Of these, roughly half came here on a Visa or Green Card that has now expired, and half came into our country by crossing the border without authorization. The problem is not all immigrants the problem is illegal immigrants and whose fault is that they have freely crossed our borders and overstayed their visa’s without any repercussion. If I was from a depressed country and could get to the Promised Land legally or illegally I would. I would especially do so when the President of that country encouraged it. Now this is the question that will set fire under some - would it be legal or illegal today for the Jewish people to take the land of the Canaanites, which is now Palestine? Would the Jewish people at that time be consider illegal aliens today?

The Bible has many references to immigrants—in fact, foreigners, strangers, and aliens are mentioned more than 150 times.

In Leviticus, God says: “When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34).

The question of immigrants is complicated today by the extreme radical Muslims. I think the main solution to that problem is strict enforcement of our Immigration Laws. I am not convinced discrimination against any one particular group of people is the answer.

All people that desire to enter our country should be vetted and required to meet stringent guidelines regardless of their religion or country of origin.  I think people should prove they can contribute to the betterment of the United States in the future in order to enter and that seems harsh to a lot of liberal thinking Christians. I think there should be set time limits as to when they must demonstrate they have a command of the English language.  But, I am no longer for discrimination against a certain group of people.  I once was because I feared radical Islamic Muslims.

I disagree with many other Christians on taking in refugees. I am for HELPING and protecting refugees in their own homeland. I do not think as Christians we can stand by and not offer assistance, but to bring their problems to our shores when we already face so many problems I simply cannot support it. If we do allow them to enter the United States I think we have a Christian obligation to treat then as  fellow citizens of the United States.

TO BE CONTINUED

Kennedy admired more after his death than during his life

On November 23, 2013 the USA was fixated on the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy's assassination and a CNN poll registers JFK as our most admired ex-president from the past half century. I was not an admirer of any of the Kennedy’s except Jacqueline. President Kennedy was not as beloved in life as he has been in death.  

During the 1960 campaign, Kennedy confronted anti-Catholic bigotry.  In Texas, the Baptist convention passed a resolution "cautioning members against voting for a Roman Catholic candidate.”  Many Protestant ministers, especially Fundamentalist minister preached from the pulpit a Catholic president would put loyalty to the Pope ahead of loyalty to the United States. Just weeks after his election, an anti-Catholic retired postal worker tried to assassinate Kennedy in Florida. I am Catholic so I had nothing against Kennedy’s religious affiliation.  In fact I am proud of the fact that Kennedy proved all the Fundamentalist Christians wrong.

I do blame Kennedy for the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. He abandoned Cuban’s fighting to overthrow Castro  on the Cuban beaches. I believe he handled the segregation issue in the South in such a way that violence was inevitable. He was slow in taking action. I know for a fact that he sent F.B.I. agents from Alabama back to Alabama undercover to spy on whites because my cousin was one of them. I did not like the way he dealt with our allies in the United Nations. It seems to me he was determined to weaken the sovereignty of the United States in the United Nation. I disagreed with his Immigration policies. He established Immigration policies that haunt us even in 2016. I opposed his family ties to the Mafia and history proves he used those ties to get elected. Kennedy was more of a philander in the White House than Clinton ever was, but people over looked it.

 Kennedy took numerous actions that increased the risk of war with the USSR. NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots loaded active nuclear bombs and advanced to an alert status in which individual pilots could have chosen to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb and this was done at Kennedy’s request. Kennedy had deployed medium-range "Jupiter" missiles to Italy and Turkey (which bordered the USSR) earlier in his term. The missiles had no deterrent value and were basically only useful as a means of attacking the Soviet nuclear arsenal as part of a first strike. That meant they were extremely destabilizing, something that was known at the time and provoked concern from Sens. Albert Gore Sr. a Democrat from Tennessee. Kennedy put missiles along the USSR border before the USSR put missiles in Cuba. Did Kennedy’s action cause the USSR to put missiles in Cuba?

Kennedy's decision to overthrow South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm was a decisive move for greater hands-on American involvement in the conflict. After that, the North Vietnamese escalated their attempt to destabilize the South Vietnamese state, which in turn spurred Lyndon Johnson's 1964 escalation.

 Kennedy authorized a 1963 coup against the pro-Soviet military leader of Iraq. The coup put the Iraqi Baath party in power, setting in motion the chain of events that would result in Saddam Hussein's decades-long rule over the nation.

He is responsible for Federal workers forming a union.

Everyone gives Kennedy credit for the Apollo Space Program, he did support it, but the Apollo Program was first conceived under the Eisenhower administration and  the Johnson administration did the heavy lifting in actually completing a manned moon landing.

As you can see I was not impressed with JFK for many reasons and I could list more. Those Christian Democrat Fundamentalist that love him so much today never mention his swimming nude in the White House Pool and using it to have sex with women other than his wife and all the other immorality that existed in the White House during his administration. They have selected memories.

Contrary to what many Democrats would like us to believe about Kennedy he was never fully embraced by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He certainly was disliked by Texas Democrats whom at the time I was one of them. I was a an officer in the Young Democrats and a supporter of Ralph Yarborough.

I believe his Immigration policies and open border philosophy stemmed from the fact that his family immigrated in the 1840’s from Ireland. Few restrictions were placed on whites that wanted to immigrate to the U.S., but it is a fact the Irish immigrants were not treated fairly once they arrived in the U.S. The discrimination against the Irish was extreme. There being Catholic made the discrimination worse.

The Kennedy’s are responsible for the wholesale shift in the face of our nation today. In 1960 there were less than 1 million foreign born from Latin America, but by 2012 the number had increased to 21.2 million. In 1958 Kennedy was calling for open borders in his public speeches. In  1963 before his assassination he was working to get support for more of his immigration reforms. Kennedy ignored the economic needs, the cultural traditions and the public sentiment of the citizens of the United States when it came to immigration policies much like Obama has done.

Kennedy was warned that the sharp increase in immigration would shake the stability of the United States and he ignored the warnings. Ted Kennedy even argued that the Founding Fathers would support open borders if that were true why did they restrict immigration only to white folks with good morals.

Few people know that it was Ted Kennedy that led the fight in 1979 to allow more political refugees into the U.S.  In 1986 he helped President Reagan pass legislation that allowed 2.7 million illegals to become legal residence of the U.S. In 2007 he helped President Bush pass legislation that allowed another 12 million illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens of the U.S. Yes, I blame the Kennedy for the problems with immigration we face in 2016 and have good reasons to do so.  The Obama victories in 2008 and 2012 are directly tied to immigrant vote.

Senator Kennedy prior to his death admitted he had not anticipated that the rise of immigration would lead to such a dramatic shift in the composition of the American population.  SORRY – A LITTLE TOO LATE THE HORSE WAS ALREADY OUT OF THE BARN BEFORE THE BARN DOOR WAS SHUT!!

I support strict immigration laws to the United States

A petition calling for Donald Trump to be banned from entering the UK has attracted more than a quarter of a million signatures more than enough for a committee to consider sending the motion for parliamentary debate. The petition is in response to Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. due to the threat of terrorism. It seems when the media and political pundits talk about the ban they always fail to add that Trump said the ban was only temporary until the U.S. government had procedures in place to properly vet refugee immigrants.

Suzanne Kelly, a woman from Aberdeen, Scotland, is responsible for the petition and is the same person who has actively campaigned against Trump's political and business activities. Her real problem with Trump stems from her opposition to Trump building a high-end golf resort in Aberdeen, which saw him come into conflict with locals. She has a personal vendetta with Trump. She first tried to get Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University to strip Trump of an honorary degree it bestowed on him five years ago.

Aberdeen has plans to build eleven wind turbines just off shore and where they plan on putting them is near Trumps resort and golf course. He opposed and eventually lost in court. The project has not progress for lack of funds and will probably not materialize. Suzanne Kelly is an environmentalist and Internet journalist and a supporter of the wind turbines. Trump has stopped the construction of a 140 luxury hotel in Aberdeen because of the dispute and is building in another city in Scotland.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who doesn't usually comment on U.S. presidential candidates, said through a spokesman that Trump's comments to ban Muslims from the United States, was "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong."

We heard a lot in the U.S. media about the ban on Trump in the U.K., but we heard little on the petition that citizens of England are circulating that calls on British leaders to "stop all immigration and close the UK borders until ISIS is defeated." That petition has more than 440,000 signatures.

Trump raised the anger of British Prime Minister David Cameron after last month’s terror attack in San Bernardino, California, by proposing to keep Muslims out until more rigorous security checks are in place. Donald Trump never called for a permanent ban on Muslims entering the United States he only wants to make sure Muslim refugees can be properly vetted before they enter our country. We have already seen proof that terrorist ISIS is infiltrating the refugees fleeing to other countries.

Cameron now says he does not support banning Trump from England. I wonder if his change in tone may have something to do with Trump threatening to halt investment plans totaling more than $1 billion in Scotland if he gets turned away.

What I find really interesting is Mr. Cameron who had harsh and nasty words for Mr. Trump is now proposing making it harder for migrant Muslims to remain in the country if they do not learn to speak English. He claims he is proposing this legislation because Muslim men are abusive to Muslim women and keep them locked away from the public because the women cannot speak English.

Mr. Cameron claims forced Muslim gender segregation, discrimination and social isolation from mainstream British life fosters extremism.” Basically what he is calling for is Muslims to become more British than Muslim. He also feels Muslim women cannot contribute to the economic growth of England because 22% of Muslim women in England cannot speak English after living decades in England. Muslim leaders say the number is only 6% not 22% as Cameron claims.

In October anyone arriving in Britain on a five-year spouse visa will need to take a test, after two-and-half-years they will be tested to prove their English is improving and after five years if they cannot speak English they will be forced to leave.

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of a Muslim organization accused Cameron on Monday of trying to appear tough on rising concerns over Muslim immigration during the current migrant crisis. It appears to me Cameron is playing politics and trying to satisfy two different factions in England. I prefer Donald Trump’s tough approach and being honest about it.

Cameron’s remarks come amid an increasing backlash against asylum seekers in Europe following the revelation that hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed in Cologne on New Year’s Eve by a mob of foreign-born men, at least some of whom were asylum seekers.

Mr. Cameron now says the time has come for them to be more assertive about their values, more clear about the expectations they place on those who come to live in England. Maybe the Prime Minister and other political leaders judged Mr. Trump too quickly and too harshly. Perhaps they are rethinking what Mr. Trump proposed and are beginning to think it is not such a bad idea after all.

Since late 2010 the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen or person settled in Britain has been required to pass an English language test before coming to the country. In 2015 the English Supreme Court rejected a challenge against an immigration rule requiring spouses to be able to speak English before moving to the UK. This law requires all immigrants even those married to British citizens to pass an English proficiency test regardless if they are Muslim or not. I believe that to be stricter than what the U.S. presently requires and Mr. Trump proposed, but I would like to see the same law passed in the U.S. 

One of the few U.S. immigration laws that makes any sense to me is the one requiring immigrants to learn and speak English before they can attain citizenship. I would like to see a law that required anyone wishing to earn an income in the U.S. be able to converse in English before arriving and in five years of their arrival pass an English proficiency test or leave. There are areas in California, Florida and Texas that an American English speaking citizen cannot shop unless they speak Spanish.

Learning English would lead to assimilation, and assimilation is not all bad if you want to stay in the United States. Immigrants are also particularly vulnerable in a new environment, so it’s even more important for them to know English before choosing the U.S. as their homeland so they can be well-versed in their rights and the laws protecting them. Frankly, I am not fond of the idea that one day the United States will be like the ‘Tower of Babel’. In 2007 the government reported, there are 37.9 million immigrants in the U.S. speaking 311 languages.

I now live in the Philippines where there are over 170 languages or dialects spoken throughout the islands. The 1987 Constitution declares Filipino as the national language of the country. Filipino and English are the official languages. When my caregiver’s family comes to visit they cannot communicate fluently with my housekeeper and all of them were born and raised on the island of Mindanao, but in different parts of the island. I honestly believe the language problems in the Philippines is a hindrance to economic development, contributes to problems in the education system and contributes to a lack of nationalism.

Conclusion:  

Immigration to the United States has become too lax. Immigration laws are being ignored. Borders are not adequately protected. Even some U.S. citizens have come to believe that immigration to the U.S. is a guaranteed right and not a privilege. 

I believe the United States has the right to impose restriction on immigrants to our country. You cannot immigrate to the Philippines, Mexico and many other countries and go to work or open a business so why should we allow it in the United States. Other countries require you show proof of income before you can extend a tourist visa. No country allows you to qualify for welfare assistance as soon as you enter except the United States. 

Other countries expect immigrants to contribute to the growth and security of their society and the United States should expect the same. Our government under the Democrat and some Republican leadership has become a welfare state and it times to stop it. 

I know what I have written will offend many, but I do not want to see the United States become a Third World Country or a dumping ground for people with few skills and no education. We have too many natural born citizens suffering from lack of medical care, food, shelter, job opportunities, training and education. Why allow immigrants to enter that will only contribute to that problem. When we can meet the needs of our own people then make immigration easier, but in the meantime I am only for legislation and immigration laws that make us a stronger country not weaker.

I do not have any problem showing proof of income in order to live in the Philippines and I do not see why anyone should be insulted to do the same if they choose to move to the United States.  

There is more than one Christian solution to the refugee problem.

The Christian Church in the United States may be about to face the largest divisive issue we have faced in decades. The issue of homosexuality may pale to the Syrian refuge issue.

Christians that want us to welcome the Syrian refugees with open arms will tell us: The story of Exodus is the story of God’s people without a land and without a home. God delivered the Israelites because “He heard their cry. - The story of the Good Samaritan is Jesus’ way of saying, remember that Jews and Samaritans did not get along it is a story of how you have to care for people, even those who you despise. - If we claim to be a Christian, or even claim we are a Christian nation we have to care for those in need regardless of who they are. - “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.” Jesus serves as the final authority of how we are to greet and care for the least of these. - James writes to scattered people, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” - As tens of thousands of refugees flee Syria, they are a people without a land. They are aliens without a home. Syrian refugees are strangers to us who have a culture, language and religion different from us. They are the least of these. They are men, women and children who are in need of a new place to call home. This “Christian nation” is called by scripture to care for Syrian refugees.

A decade ago, maybe even five years ago, I would have agreed whole heartily without hesitation with all those words. I might be up in arms against those that did not want to welcome the Syrian refugees, but times have changed. I hope that I would not have called those that disagreed with me a bigot and hypocrite as many of the Christians supporting bringing the Syrian refugees to the U.S. are doing, including our President.

When it comes to Muslim immigration, we must not be led by our emotions. The spread of political Islam and creeping sharia law is often accomplished by means of immigration. BBC reports that fake passports are already being used to get jihadists into Europe. German customs officers have seized packages containing Syrian passports and police suspect they are being sold illegally to asylum seekers. Honduras stopped six Syrian men with false passports on their way to the United States. A finance ministry official said both genuine and forged passports were in the packets intercepted in the post office. ISIS has threatened to send 500,000 migrants to Europe as part of jihad. Do we close our minds to these facts?

ISIS claims they have fighters that are already in place in Europe and with the reason events in Paris I have no reason to doubt them. Our own Homeland Security and F.B.I. say they are investigating reported terrorist suspects in every State. There can be and most likely will be consequences to badly directed compassion.

We must also ask why most rich Muslim nations are refusing to take in these refugees. Perhaps they know something we don’t. Five of the wealthiest Muslim countries have taken no Syrian refugees, arguing that doing so would open them up to the risk of terrorism. Muslim nations are admitting that Muslim refugees pose a genuine terrorist threat. Yet, Obama, Liberals and a lot of Christians are asking us to throw our doors wide open with no questions asked. Western countries tend to want to be more politically correct than right and God knows they do not want to be accused of Islamophobia.

Please, do not lecture me about vetting and that it would take 18 to 24 months before we saw the first Syrian refugees. We did not do such a good job vetting the terrorist that came on student visas. We did not do such a good job of keeping up with the terrorist that over stayed their tourist visas. We have estimates as high as sixteen million illegal aliens in our country today and no one in our government can tell us where they live.

I had a friend send me two pictures of dead children that washed ashore asking me how I could look at those pictures and question if we should open our doors to Syrian refugees. I admit the pictures broke my heart. The children in my opinion were not dead because advanced countries have immigration laws. The children were dead because criminal traffickers risked the lives of their victims in pursuit of money.

The President of Turkey said that one of those children and his parents had been living in Turkey for three years and were provided shelter. The President of Turkey claims they were safe so I ask were they fleeing from danger, or fleeing towards a higher standard of living. I thought the definition of refugee was one that was fleeing danger. Am I supposed to automatically assume that the President of Turkey is lying?

Michel Houellebecq, has a new book out where he prophesies a Muslim dominated government in France about seven years from now, ushered into power by the French Tory and Labor parties. He says his research reveals they want France to disappear.

How many people today remember the community in Wasco County, Oregon? It was incorporated as a city in the 1980s, and was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Bhagwat Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho. They eventually imported 7000 people to this small community. Initially, they had stated that they were planning to create a small agricultural community; their land was zoned for agricultural use. But it soon became apparent that they wanted to establish the kind of infrastructure and services normally associated with a town. The land-use conflict escalated to bitter hostility between the commune and local residents, even leading to murder.

In 1986 the courts ruled that the religious group had the right to incorporate the city and elect their own government officials. The city eventually went bankrupt. Unfortunately most of the local farmers and ranchers had already been forced to move away. This could be an example of a refugee problem in a small established community.

Will there be any type of control where these refugees will settle. What if they eventually take over a small town in the Western United States and force the locals out. You believe that is farfetched, well I believe bringing refugees in without any terrorist being among them is farfetched. I believe bringing Syrian refugees to our country without a plan that covers vetting, housing, medical, education, clothing, food, where they will work and what cities they will live in is not worth the risk.

We cannot rely on emotions and sadly we cannot rely only on scripture to solve this serious problem for us. We had to override scripture when it came to slavery, women’s rights, killing children that talk back, killing adulterous people, etc. The Good Samaritan story just may not be applicable to this situation we are in now.

One Baptist minister from Alabama said, “If we cannot trust the process by which the United States Government vets refugees fleeing violence and persecution, then we cannot trust any form of our border security or immigration or visa processes.” At the moment I don’t trust any form of our border security or immigration or visa processes. If these policies were working then how did the terrorist carry out 9/11 and how did maybe sixteen million illegal aliens get into our country?

The Baptist minister quotes John Sandweg, former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “The United States employs a robust and layered approach to the screening of refugees. Prior to setting foot on U.S. soil, refugees must first clear a comprehensive background investigation that includes multiple layers of in-person interviews, biographic and biometric background checks, and interviews of third-persons who may have information related to the individual. No refugee may be admitted into the U.S. unless and until this lengthy process is complete and reveals no information that would suggest the person poses a security risk.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied she had a private server and had classified information on it. The head of the I.R.S. Lois Lerner said the I.R.S. was not discriminating against conservatives for tax exemptions, but then she took the fifth. President Obama said there was not one smidgen of corruption in the I.R.S. and we found out differently. Obama said if you like your health care plan you can keep it – did that turn out to be true? Obama said my father left my family when I was 2 years old and we now know he never spent one night with his father. Obama said The Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration we now know for a fact it began in 2009 under his administration. Obama claimed they revealed to the American people exactly what they knew about the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi and that turned out not to be true. Obama said transparency and the rule of law would be the touchstone of his Presidency - what a joke!

Does the Baptist minister expect me to believe John Sandweg? Isn’t this the same John Sandweg that left his position in less than a year? He walked out without providing a clear explanation. Is he not the same John Sandweg that had no experience in Immigration and was opposed by many when he was being vetted? Isn’t this the same John Sandweg that tried to stop a Freedom of Information investigation into spending in the DHS? I am sorry, but I have a hard time taking John Sandweg’s word on anything.

I wish some Christian had facts that were proven to be trustworthy so I could reconcile the conflict I have in my heart with the Syrian Refugee problem, but no one has.

The only viable solution I see at the moment is extending more financial aid to Muslim countries, particularly Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to take care of the Syrian refugees where they are. These refugees will have a better chance of getting back into their country and possibly gaining control of their country if they are living near where they came from rather than moving them to Europe, Australia and the United States. I do not deny that our country and all Western countries, regardless if they are Christian or not, has an obligation to protect their security and provide adequate living conditions for them. Supporting them there would help stop them from needing to go elsewhere.

Syria in my opinion will remain a serious problem for many years, that's all the more reason for a longer-term humanitarian response, including setting up schools and medical facilities. We would probably get more loyalty from the Syrians and they would be more encouraged to stand up to ISIS by helping them with aid than spending millions on training a few Syrian rebel fighters.

I have read the Syrian refugees do not want to live in camps where all the tents look alike. They want to live in homes. I wish that was possible. I am sure the people in the Philippines that have been without homes for over two years due to typhoons would like to have a home. We cannot always have what we ‘want’ we sometimes have to settle for what we can get at the moment.

I do believe building permanent homes may be more feasible than tents, since this is going to be a long term problem. I guess the Syrian refugees would complain that the home all look alike. The people of the Philippines that have been given government homes that all look alike are thrilled. It makes me question the Syrian refugee’s real motives.

One last point the Syrian refugees I see on television appear to be healthy young men.  If these are real refugees, where are the women? Where are the elderly? Where are the weak and the sick? It appears to me that they have no intention of fighting for their own freedom in Syria. They have made up their minds they want to live in the West.

This is a quote from a group of young men that left the refugee camp in Hungary, “No good here in Hungary. No good. They try and lock us up. But we want Germany, there it is good. We have no worry about nothing there. They give us food and house and job. In Hungary they want to watch us all the time.” They are in the majority amongst the thousands who arrive each day in Hungary on their way north. While they wait they want to charge their iPhones, eat more pizza and board their trains.  Everyone either has an iPhone or knows someone else who does. They use them to talk to family members on the other side of the world or network with each other sharing information. This is what they told an aid worker.

Several of the young men had already spent $5000 on travel when they got to Hungary. Refugees have $5000 plus in cash? One said, “I want new life. I want to go to university. Make money. I want to work in a bank, be a banker. Bring all my family later.” When ask why he did not stay and fight for his homeland he said, “There is nothing worth fighting for.”

There is no future there because Obama took away all their future by allowing the “J.V. Team” as Obama called ISIS to take over their country. Obama says as long as he is President he will befriend the refugees. If he was truly a friend of the refugees he would not have withdrawn the troops against the advice of his military advisors and he would have stood up to the President of Syria when he crossed Obamas red line.

I am not convinced that God expects us to risk allowing terrorist to come into our country as they did in France and kill our citizens. I am convinced God does expect us to help the Syrian refugees. There is more than one way to accomplish that and other ways have far less risk for the citizens of the United States. Help them where they are!

A Jewish man was taking a trip alone and was attacked by robbers. A Samaritan man came by. Even though they both lived in the land of Palestine and shared a similar religion, the Jews and the Samaritans definitely did not think of each other as "neighbors." In fact, they hated each other. They had considered each other enemies for hundreds of years and refused to even talk to each other! This Samaritan man took pity on the injured Jewish man. He bandaged his wounds. He put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he could be safe and recover. Jesus was pleased with the Samaritan man in the story even though he did not take the Jewish man back into his home, but took care of him where he was.

God led the Jews into battle and they took the Promise Land from its inhabitants and the Jews settled on it. Why aren’t the Christians and Obama that advocate bringing the refugees to the United States willing to take the land back from ISIS and let the Syrian return to their land? God and the Jews defeated the pagans cannot God and the United States defeat the ISIS pagans? I think we can.

Have we stopped believing that God hears the cries of the Syrians? God said, “Whatever you do for the least you do for me.” James wrote we are to look after the orphans and widows are Christians not capable of doing that there instead of the United States? There is not just one Christian solution to the Syrian refugee problem.